We went to church with Scott's parents today. I took Harper into "big church" for the first time since she was a tiny baby. We didn't last long. We ALMOST made it to the sermon. Man I am thankful for our church nursery! :-)

Last night I was watching a show on the food network - it was a competition between four families who were cooking their version of Thanksgiving dinner. There was middle eastern version, a traditional version, a southern version and a vegetarian version. The middle east family won which was a little questionable - since it was NOTHING anyone normally eats on this holiday. But each family had to cook a turkey, a second protein, five side dishes and a dessert (and not one family made a pie - strange). I was trying to decide what I would cook if I was in the contest.I think I would make cornbread dressing, green bean bundles (or green bean casserole), potato casserole, sweet potato casserole and a 7 layer salad and for dessert chocolate pecan pie. And I was a little stumped on the second meat because we already have a turkey but Paula Deen makes these great little bacon chicken bite appetizers that might be a good addition.

WHAT WOULD YOU MAKE IF YOU WERE IN THE CONTEST???? I'm curious since there are readers from all over.

We always have turkey AND ham, along with dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potato casserole, squash, green bean casserole, etc. etc. etc. and you HAVE to have a pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving :)

For my meal it would be turkey, ham, cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoe casserole, green beans, cranberry salad, and pumpkin pie. Actually...that is pretty much what we will be having...along with some other stuff too!

We always make turkey, orange ham, mashed potatos, sweet potatos, corn casserole, grandma's homemade cranberry sauce, buns, relish tray and usually some other salad of some sort. Also we make a lot of pies...this year will be pecan, pumpkin, lemon and cherry! I'm getting hungry already!

We are doing our own dinner this year for the first time here is the menu---TurkeyHamMashed potatoesSweet PotatoesGreen bean casseroleCornGravyStuffing loafStuffing ballsCole slawRollsNoodles cooked in turkey juicesDeviled eggsport wine cheese ball and crackersveggies and dippumpkin and apple piepumpkin muffinsand punch.

LOL that pic is funny of Harper looking at her pawpaw and daddy in those bright orange hats!

That is strange the competition didn't make a pie!

I would make of courseSeasoned turkey, sweet potatoe strussel casserole, mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing and for the second meat thing you could always have a Turduckin!! Turkey, Chicken, and Duck SCORE!!Summer :0)

I would do the following:TurkeySalmonCheesy hashbrown casseroleBroccoli saladCaramel Apple Salad (Apples, Snickers, coolwhip, caramel pudding - so yummy!)Caeasar saladSourdough or french breadPumpkin Cheesecake or a pumpkin roll

My father's side of my family is Cuban, so we always have black beans and rice. Which unfortunately this year I will not be partaking in since I am nursing. Beans and baby do not mix! But other then that turkey, mimosa ham (ham cooked in oj and champagne, YUMMO!), real cranberry sauce (not that jelly can stuff!), green bean casserole, and about ten more sides...

Oh man I can not wait until THURSDAY, but better yet the next day for turkey sandwiches!!

I would make potato casserole, green bean bundles, corn, orzo salad, lots and lots of rolls, ham, and for dessert a buttermilk pie. I know buttermilk pie does NOT sound appetizing - but it is SO delicious and it's what my grandmother ALWAYS made for holidays and now I make it for my family. Yumm-O!

oh gosh, I have NO idea what I would make. BUT your family picture is GREAT!! Seriously, I think my favorite picture of the three of your together!! Harper's little grin is darn cute and you both look great! LOVE IT!

My favorite thing about Thanksgiving is that it does expand to almost all cuisines! Our family always started with 2 ravioli for everyone because of all the Italians who felt it wasn't a meal without something with red sauce. Your menu sounds great--have a happy one!

Oh wow...that's fun. I'd do turkey, cornbread dressing, green beans with mushrooms, squash casserole, fruit salad (maybe with some mint added), and maybe butter beans. Another protein??? Hmmm...maybe a pork loin with a cranberry marinade? And for dessert I'd probably do my grandmother's pecan pie...it's the best. Though I think this year, I'm going to try a tiramisu cake. Tiramisu is my brother's favorite dessert but I don't want to make that...but a cake, could be fun!

I hear ALL about Chick-A-Dilly from my friend Laurie. Since she grew up in Magnolia, she swears it's the best chicken she has ever eaten!:)

This is what my mom always cooks so this is what I would cook:TurkeyStuffingHasbrown Potatoe casserole Green bean bundles (is that a protein since it has bacon? Ha!)Squash casserole7 layer saladRollsChocolate pie or 4 layer delight for dessert

First of all, that fried chicken looks scrumptious! YUMMY!! But to answer your Thanksgiving question, our family is very, very traditional. Turkey, Ham, green beans, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, stuffing and cranberry sauce. The dessert is a toughy because we have an amazing family recipe apple pie and pumpkin pie and chocolate pie and apple bars :-) Can you tell we LOVE our desserts! LOL

I am such a picky eater the only things I eat at Thanksgiving and Christmas is ham and crescent rolls. For both holidays the menus are pretty much the traditional items. Though the desserts can change but normally there is pecan pie. Mincemeat pie, pumpkin pie, and coconut cake switch out.I hate i missed the show I had seen the commercials for it but I guess I didn't make it back in time.

I just have to say that I am new to the south. Until today I thought "dressings" was something you put on salad. When my church had a Thanksgiving lunch today I learned that dressing is in fact the same as filling or stuffing. I don't know when I'll get used to the way people talk around here. :)

I would make a turkey and a honey baked ham (yum!), with dressing, loaded mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, broccoli and rice casserole, cranberry sauce, and a relish tray. For dessert, I would make a pumpkin pie, lemon chess pie, and a caramel apple pie.

Firstly, you do look amazing as usual. LOVE the pic with Harper looking at the guys like "what? I thought our color was red, not orange?" ha. :)

Secondly, what are green bean bundles??? Sorry, I'm from OH originally (now in Dallas)

Well, if I was in the contest, which I wouldn't be b/c I don't/can't cook, but my Mom makes:

1) Turkey2) Stuffing (from a box; no, it's not a sacrilege, just not a big deal in the north!)3) Mashed potatoes4) Cranberry sauce (sometimes Grandma's recipe, which I like)5) Green bean casserole, sometime made with broccoli instead6) Fruit salad, which is lemon/tapioca pudding with pineapple, maraschino cherries and other fruit I can't remember!7) pumpkin and pecan pies

Why would you need a second protein? I guess I'd have cocktail shrimp with red sauce...

I watched that show last night--that was one nasty looking turkey. If prensentation alone counted, no way would they have won!I have to have cranberries at Thanksgiving--in fact the jellied canned stuff is about my favorite!!

We had thanksgiving this weekend with my parents and I made your green bundles. I also really like spinach squares, a recipe I got from a friend and they are now a family favorite! (Spinach, monterey jack, pepper jack cheese are the basics...yummy!) And must have squash casserole. We also ALWAYS have broccoli rice cheese casserole and pecan and chocolate pies.

I am doing thanksgiving for the first time this year and am making ham, green bean bundles (thanks for these Kelly...LOVE THEM!!), sweet potato casserole, cornbread dressing, rolls, and tea. We are going somewhere else for dessert but if we weren't I'd probably make pecan pie or chocolate pie, or both!

My father was one of 6 and I have 27 cousins. Plus, our family business was a meat packing company. Needless to say, with that many people and that kind of connections we ALWAYS had turkey, ham and beef every Thanksgiving. We also had noodles which were everyone's fave. For dinner after Thanksgiving lunch my grandmother always took the leftover turkey and made Turkey Endive (some people may know as Turkey Under Glass?). I miss those huge dinners....thanks for rekindling the memories!

we are going to have the meat, corn, green beans, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatos, dressing, pecan pie, and i'm going to do lemon cookies as well just to snack on. . .you know.....after we are all so full we can't stand it.

Yes! Thank goodness for Church Nurseries!! :) I don't think London (13mo) would make it past praise and worship. My little boy, Dylan (5) would proabably be okay with a pen and some paper. haha!

I would have to cook a good ole traditional Southern Thanksgiving for the contest. We always have a fried turkey and a roasted turkey (can that count as two meats? haha!) For the sides I would do the following casseroles: sweet potato, green bean, broccoli cheese rice and then dressing with giblet gravy, home made sour dough rolls, chef salad, and cranberry salad. If I could only do one dessert, I feel like it would have to be a pumpkin pie!

I watched the show, too. I loved the side dishes on the middle eastern menu - they looked so interesting and good, just not for Thanksgiving! :(We have turkey, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, deviled eggs, pumpkin and derby pie, veggie plate, cranberries, corn.....I am about the only person on Earth that doesn't like turkey, so I'd add ham at Thanksgiving. ;) Also, I love everything Southern, even though I am from the North! :)

This post cracked me up because I am from TN (the south!) and never had a Thanksgiving without turkey and ham (two meats). With that it is corn casserole, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and stuffing. Then a pie for dessert.

I didn't realize that people didn't have those two meats until I got married to my Italian husband that has sausage and meatballs for Turkey Day!

But over the past 5 years of marriage we have worked to have both for Thanksgiving.

My grandmother makes Oyster Stuffing because they live on the East Coast near Charleston - but she also does stuffing. Really there is NO stuffing like good ol' cornbread stuffing! Perfect for a southern gal like me!

This is only the 2nd or 3rd time I've cooked Thanksgiving dinner for our family, but I'm looking forward to having everyone here. They will be bringing dessert, and I hear that we'll be having pecan pie, sweet potato pie, cherry pie, apple pie and pumpkin pie. I also have peanut butter pie in the freezer-just in case!

A little UT Orange in your wardrobe isn't a bad thing! My children could teach Harper all the words to Rocky Top if you want! :o) It's still Great to be a Tennessee Vol (even if we do have a couple of ignorant players dressed in UT athletic dept. gear while robbing two other students at gunpoint!)

I'd make a turkey, ham, Skoby's corn (an absolutely awesome, easy corn dish), broccoli casserole, sweet potato soufle, slaw, and dressing. I'd tack on pumpkin pie for dessert. In reality, there's no way I could do all of this with a four year old and a two year old to keep up with!

Alright, since I am from Savannah I should cook some of Paula's dishes, but I would go with our traditional southern meal. Fried Turkey (my fav), ham, green bean cassorole, mac and cheese, sweet potato souffle with the marshmallows on top, cornbread stuffing, cresant rolls, 7 layer salad, and we always have pecan and pumpkin pies. Yum yum! We also always have a lot more cassoroles on thanksgiving, but that's what I would make for the comp.

Southern Living had a recipe for Carmel Pecan Pumkin Bread Pudding last month that sounded delicious. I tried it out last week for some friends and it was big hit...it will be served this week at my Thanksgiving dinner along with a side of Blue Bell French Vanilla! It was also really easy and mostly all was prepared the nigth before...plus!

We always have turkey and ham, although I could easily forgo the turkey. My inlaws don't have turkey, just ham. Also chicken and cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, and rolls. We also have other things I don't really eat such as corn casserole, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce. Pretty much a traditional thanksgiving feast. As long as I have some ham, dressing and bread I am usually happy.

Could someone post a link to Paula Deen's bacon chicken bites? I can't find them anywhere and they sound like they would be tasty! I need to make something amazing to take to my mother-in-law's this week! Thanks!

Absolutely beautiful pictures of your family. Hope you are enjoying your time with Scott's family. If I had to enter a contest (ha), it would certainly be as traditional as possible and hope all the favorites I try to make for everyone would turn out well!!Blessings always and please know how very thankful I am for you and your constant positive inspiration to me and so many others.Travel safe this week,KayeMatthew 21:22

Oh yummm, I am so excited about Thanksgiving...it is always so good! Plus we close on our 1st house the day before Thanksgiving and we have a new baby in our family that we get to meet for the 1st time this year! So much to be thankful for! Ok, I would cook a turkey, honey ham with pineapples, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, new potato mashed potatoes with roasted garlic and a must to leave the skin on the potatoes...yumm-o! and pecan pie with ice cream! ok, now i'm hungry!

I've heard you talk about Chik-a-Dilly chicken and I have to admit...it looks GOOOOD! Wow. Y'all have a wonderful Thanksgiving week. I know you feel so grateful to be celebrating Thanksgiving with a healthy Harper this year! Happy Hunting to the guys,

Hi Kelly!If It were my Thanksgiving dinner, it would be smoked BBQ Turkey, Brisket, scalloped potatoes, corn casserole, pea salad and upside down pecan apple pie. Pretty generic I know! Sounds like that was a great show to watch! Wish I would have caught it! Love your blog! Audreynatalieryansmommy.blogspot.com

I am from Canada and we have turkey, cold ham, mashed potatoes, broccolii casserole with almonds, stuffing, brussel sprouts or cauliflower with cheese sauce, buns, cranberry sauce and gravy. For dessert we always have either pumpkin pie and/or apple pie.

I had to comment because of Chick-a-Dilly. The BEST fried chicken ever. :~)

This will be our first Thanksgiving out of the US. We have been in the Philippines for 7 weeks. I plan for us to have a rotisserie chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes and hot pandesal (delicious rolls), but things are not always available here so we will see what is available on Thursday! I have no idea about a dessert. :~)

I watched this and also wondered what I would make. The southern meal they had some questionable southern dishes! I would do cornbread dressing, sweet potato souffle with pecan crumble on top, squash casserole, collards, and macaroni and cheese. I think I would have pork loin with cranberry raisin sauce for the second protein and definitely pumpkin cheesecake for dessert! Yum!

KellyAround Thanksgiving, I want to give thanks for you and your blog! I have been a faithful reader through a friend. I read your blog all through my pregnancy and admire your trust and faith in God. YOU have been part of the reason we are leading our family back to Him. This past weekend, my husband and I attended a Family Life retreat called A Weekend to Remember. One of the main speakers was a guy names Mark from Arkansas - I think close to where you may be. Have you and Scott ever attended one? You would LOVE it! I am highly recommending it to all my married friends and friends thinking about getting married. I don't work for them. I am a teacher, newlywed and new mom as well and I just LOVED the weekend. You can read about it on my blog if you want www.babyballantyne.blogspot.com but I wanted to let you know about it since you are one of the reasons we were drawn to opening God back up in our lives! Thank you!

I had so many things running through my head for menu options that I felt pulled to comment! LOL

Turkey

Ham

Stuffing

green beans with bacon and walnuts

apple banana salad

mashed potatoes with gravy

mashed acorn squash with maple flavoring

Only ONE dessert? How can that be?

For the one dessert for the competition I would make my grandma's raisin pie. But at my house we also must have pumpkin pie and apple pie. And this year I'm throwing in a cherry pie in honor of my husband being home for the holiday and not off in Montana hunting something.

Ours would be turkey, baked chicken wrapped in bacon (or maybe bbqued with a dry rub?), sweet potato casserole, 7-layer salad, cornbread dressing with apples and nuts, homemade cranberry salad/relish, and southern green beans (you know, with fatback) for my youngest who eats them up. For dessert I would have to go with a pumpkin bread with a glaze. Wouldn't it have been great if one of the families had cooked up some venison or rabbit stew for their protein dish?? :)

My brother and his wife won't be with us this Thanksgiving and my husband will be at the camp, so my mom is doing something different this year. Instead of the traditional meal that she prepares, she is making chicken and sausage gumbo - a true Louisiana delicacy and something different and new. I'm excited about it!

I would have no idea how to cook a turkey - and besides, here in Australia we don't do Thanksgiving, so I'll pretend we have to make a Christmas meal instead!

Because it's hot here at Christmas time, we usually have seafood - prawns or something like that. Although we do often have roast lamb or pork as well, just for variety. Then I'd make potato bake, and we often have honeyed carrots as well. Is that five things?!

For dessert, I can't decide- I'd either make a Toblerone cheesecake (my favourite!) or if I'm going totally Aussie, it'd have to be a pavlova.

Oh wait, I need something with vegemite! (Just kidding, we only use that when we spread it on our toast!)

I've seen your blog on a few of the ones I follow. I thought you looked familiar, I'd seen you and your family at Saint Francis in the NICU. Our little guy was in there at the same time! Glad to see your sweet girl is doing so good!!

Kelly, Last weekend I was able to go to the WOF conference in Houston! I sponsered a child through World Vision! I'm catching up on my favorite blogs this morning and I just read all about your trip! I'm crying! Maybe I'll make it to Zimbabwe some day...Lord willing! I would love to meet my little girl!!!

Could you post if you liked the Graco carseat you recently purchased for Harper after installing it and using it a few times? I'm due in Feb and we are adding items to our registry and thought we would register for the toddler seat too.

I would make "Carlson Chili" My husband Kelly & I made it one time by mixin a whole bunch of kinds of beans, different tomatoes, and turkey meat.It was so good we wrote down the recipe and have made it ever since and we always get compliments!*we are even making it tonight for the inlaws**

I would make "Carlson Chili" My husband Kelly & I made it one time by mixin a whole bunch of kinds of beans, different tomatoes, and turkey meat.It was so good we wrote down the recipe and have made it ever since and we always get compliments!*we are even making it tonight for the inlaws**

That last picture is a great family picture of you guys, everyone is looking and smiling! You have such a sweet family and I love how close ya'll seem. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and give that sweet little girl an extra squeeze for me!

Thanks for sharing your vacation fun. Yes, Harper, I was wondering about those hats too...but I think its so they don't accidentally get hurt out there hunting-LOL! But you would think the bright orange color might scare away the prey.

Anyway, I would definitely make my grandmas macaroni and cheese. It is (seriously) just a pan on cheesy goodness. Its fattening and yummy and you have to burn the top a little bit- yum! So good.